The Word of God is that unchangeable yet inexhaustible standard of truth which has served as a reliable map of life for thousands of years. Map of Life is a feature of Sky View where we garner whatever insights or directives Scripture has to offer (if people like it, we'll post this series a couple of times a week). As the saying goes, praying is our way of speaking to God, reading Scripture is God's way of speaking to us. Indeed our relationship with God is a two way street. To take at least 15-30 minutes a day and meditate on the Word of God. It is food for the soul and light for the mind. Slowly but surely, this spiritual exercise is bound to yield its fruit. You will then notice a difference about the way you see God, yourself and the world around you!___________________________________________________________________
Scripture Passage: Judges 7:2-7
The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many soldiers with you for me to deliver Midian into their power, lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, 'My own power brought me the victory.' Now proclaim to all the soldiers, 'If anyone is afraid or fearful, let him leave.'" When Gideon put them to this test on the mountain, twenty-two thousand of the soldiers left, but ten thousand remained. The LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many soldiers. Lead them down to the water and I will test them for you there. If I tell you that a certain man is to go with you, he must go with you. But no one is to go if I tell you he must not." When Gideon led the soldiers down to the water, the LORD said to him, "You shall set to one side everyone who laps up the water as a dog does with its tongue; to the other, everyone who kneels down to drink." Those who lapped up the water raised to their mouths by hand numbered three hundred, but all the rest of the soldiers knelt down to drink the water. The LORD said to Gideon, "By means of the three hundred who lapped up the water I will save you and will deliver Midian into your power. So let all the other soldiers go home."
Sky View Comments:
Gideon was one of twelve judges who ruled Israel. And the people of Midian happened to pose a threat to the Israelites. A battle between them was imminent. However, in order to bolster Gideon’s faith, the Lord required only three hundred Israelite soldiers to defeat thousands of Midianites. Gideon was outnumbered by design. Psalm 127 speaks to what the Lord wants his servants to learn from this: "Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build." This is the lesson the Lord wanted to impress upon Gideon. To be sure, it was a lesson for the Apostles when they set out to make disciples of all nations. And it was a lesson for the Church Fathers, Shepherds and Saints of the Church throughout the ages. It proved to be one of many inspirations for their hope.
The lesson that Gideon learned can be distilled down to this: It’s not so much what you say or what you do or many people do it that changes people's hearts for the better, it is what God does with what you say and what you do that really counts. No doubt, the content of our words and actions should, at all times, be morally good. But there are times when a highly publicized achievement will benefit only a few while small and seemingly unimportant deeds- with God's help -will bring about great changes for many. To meditate, therefore, on God’s omnipotence- although he uses just a few men, indeed, weak men –is of great important for Catholics who daily observe the unfavorable events in our nation and in the world.
In his book, Religion and the Modern State, historian Christopher Dawson said, “Humanity labors under a burden of inherited evil which it is powerless of itself to throw off. In St. John’s terrific phrase ‘the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.’” This has always been the case throughout history. It is no different now nor is it nothing new. To the Apostles who would soon face the challenges of the pagan world, Our Lord promised, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world." (John 16:33) And St. John the Apostle echoed this uplifting truth to the young Christians of his day: “I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.” (I John 2:13) Both the world and the ruler of the world are first conquered in the sanctified soul through faith and love in Christ. This conquest is then communicated out into the world through action and witness.
Dawson goes on to say that “while the Church is the bearer of life to humanity it depends on the individual members of the Church whether they will be merely the passive recipients of this gift or whether they will be the agents of its diffusion in the world.” In recounting the setbacks of the Church throughout the centuries, he hastens to add this: “All the tragedies of Christendom arose from the failure of individual Christians to rise to their opportunities and to permeate their life and their social and intellectual culture by faith. Wherever Christians cease to be active, when they rest in a passive acquiescence in what they have received, Christianity tends to lose contact with contemporary culture and the world drifts away from the Church.”
Being outnumbered by unbelievers has never been the problem for the advancement of God’s kingdom. And it is important to remember that in today’s world it is not the main challenge for the New Evangelization. The deciding factor is whether or not individual Catholics are fully engaged in giving witness to Christ’s love in a world that has increasingly drifted away from him.
The Catholic monks and martyrs of old, known for their prayers and sacrifices before embarking on a great mission, were on to something. They taught us before acting make time for prayer and spiritual sacrifices. As such, we will not be the only ones acting but God will also act on our behalf. With this in mind, not only will we be undaunted by the sheer numbers of those in the world who seem unfriendly to the Gospel, we will be much less inclined to conform to their ways when pressures mount. No doubt, if we know that God is “building the house” and that everything is within his providence, our faith in him will hold firm even when we are outnumbered by God's design.
